Nexus expansions review: Hollywood & Vintage drum kits.
- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 4807 posts since 10 Feb, 2006 from Stockholm, Sweden
This is a review of the two expansions Hollywood and Vintage drum kits for reFX Nexus 2.3.2
Vintage Drum kits (saving the best for last)
This expansion is pretty small (only 300 Mb, but it has an awful amount of good sounding drum kits. It consists of 3 folders spanning drum loops, drum kits, and bonus sequences. The drum kits contains a vast area of different sounds. From hiphop to soundtrack, from latin to India percussion. It comes filled to the brim with really good drumkits for pop, rock, dance, hiphop, drum&bass, and other genres.
It contains also a bunch of really funky kits, such as a decent SID kit, a kit constructed on the Adlib FM sounds, a kit based on the Amiga MOD songs with equal awesome sounds. It has a time stretched kit, a FX kit, and some really strange kits as well.
The loops is based on the basic kits described above, and are pretty generic, but since each kit contains 60+ sounds then you can play the loop on other keys to get new loops that sounds pretty awkward at worst. You cannot alter the loops apart from this function.
The bonus section holds 10 different loops that mimics different songs. I don't really need them though, but fun to have if the need arises.
So is this expansion any good? If you're looking for different drums packed in an easy way to use them, then this is pretty much all you need when it comes to drums. What really increases the value is the drum kits since they can really be useful for a lot of different genres. The famous drummachines from the 80's is also available. This expansion is the perfect counterpart with the Dance drums expansion.
Sound: 9/10
Hollywood
If big sounding soundtracks is your thing then this is what you should get. It is pretty simply said: Dance orchestra on steroids. It is the ultimate orchestra expansion for Nexus. It comes with all sorts of different sounds spanning the entire orchestra. From drums to organs, brass to choirs, strings to sequences it's got everything you possibly need. Here's an example:
http://soundcloud.com/johanbrodd/gaia-hymen
So is this worth getting? Oh yeah this is one of reFX finest expansions. Worth the money, and I got a lot of inspiration from this expansion. I bought it, and wrote the above song in 20 minutes.
Sound quality: 10 / 10
Vintage Drum kits (saving the best for last)
This expansion is pretty small (only 300 Mb, but it has an awful amount of good sounding drum kits. It consists of 3 folders spanning drum loops, drum kits, and bonus sequences. The drum kits contains a vast area of different sounds. From hiphop to soundtrack, from latin to India percussion. It comes filled to the brim with really good drumkits for pop, rock, dance, hiphop, drum&bass, and other genres.
It contains also a bunch of really funky kits, such as a decent SID kit, a kit constructed on the Adlib FM sounds, a kit based on the Amiga MOD songs with equal awesome sounds. It has a time stretched kit, a FX kit, and some really strange kits as well.
The loops is based on the basic kits described above, and are pretty generic, but since each kit contains 60+ sounds then you can play the loop on other keys to get new loops that sounds pretty awkward at worst. You cannot alter the loops apart from this function.
The bonus section holds 10 different loops that mimics different songs. I don't really need them though, but fun to have if the need arises.
So is this expansion any good? If you're looking for different drums packed in an easy way to use them, then this is pretty much all you need when it comes to drums. What really increases the value is the drum kits since they can really be useful for a lot of different genres. The famous drummachines from the 80's is also available. This expansion is the perfect counterpart with the Dance drums expansion.
Sound: 9/10
Hollywood
If big sounding soundtracks is your thing then this is what you should get. It is pretty simply said: Dance orchestra on steroids. It is the ultimate orchestra expansion for Nexus. It comes with all sorts of different sounds spanning the entire orchestra. From drums to organs, brass to choirs, strings to sequences it's got everything you possibly need. Here's an example:
http://soundcloud.com/johanbrodd/gaia-hymen
So is this worth getting? Oh yeah this is one of reFX finest expansions. Worth the money, and I got a lot of inspiration from this expansion. I bought it, and wrote the above song in 20 minutes.
Sound quality: 10 / 10
- KVRAF
- 2177 posts since 12 Nov, 2009
well i totally agree with your reviews. wish i had the time to write some myself, as before i bought nearly all of them, i had searched for user feedback and didn't find enough of it on the net.
Finally!
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- KVRian
- 591 posts since 10 Nov, 2005 from New York City
Have been interested in Nexus multiple times, but always been swayed be feedback here on KVR and elsewhere that it is very inflexible. The demo above for example could be easily done with Omnisphere and Kontakt's standard library. What does Nexus give you guys above those? Is it just the ease of use having everything at your fingertips? Just curious - thanks!
- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 4807 posts since 10 Feb, 2006 from Stockholm, Sweden
I know that Nexus is a bit easier to use, that's why I use it.
I know that Kontakt and Omnisphere got similar sounds, but it is the combinative use that really sets the standard.
Kontakt for instance has many key zones for strings / brass etc, something you don't have in Nexus AFAIK.
Omnisphere has them odd sounds that is hard to come by elsewhere, stuff that Nexus doesn't have.
But then Nexus has prepared sequences with 3-4 instruments working towards a common goal. Something that Kontakt has in the urban loops, and only for drums. Something that Omnisphere has, but only for arpeggios. Alone the plugins are all great, but joined forces they're invincibly unstopable!
The drums in this demo comes from a drumkit in the Hollywood expansion.
I know that Kontakt and Omnisphere got similar sounds, but it is the combinative use that really sets the standard.
Kontakt for instance has many key zones for strings / brass etc, something you don't have in Nexus AFAIK.
Omnisphere has them odd sounds that is hard to come by elsewhere, stuff that Nexus doesn't have.
But then Nexus has prepared sequences with 3-4 instruments working towards a common goal. Something that Kontakt has in the urban loops, and only for drums. Something that Omnisphere has, but only for arpeggios. Alone the plugins are all great, but joined forces they're invincibly unstopable!
The drums in this demo comes from a drumkit in the Hollywood expansion.
- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 4807 posts since 10 Feb, 2006 from Stockholm, Sweden
I really agree on hihat groupings. As for multiple outs it's just to clone the Nexus with the drums you want to use loaded, and route it to another mixer channel.
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- Banned
- 22457 posts since 5 Sep, 2001
Hey guys sorry to bump such an old topic but i was about to plunge on this EXP before the sale ends,J'lien X wrote:The Vintage Drumkits expansion is really good but it would've been better if it had multi outputs and hi-hat grouping.
i have never really understood drums and have always publicly admitted programming drums is my absolute weakest point in music creation which is why i often turn to loops as starting points for the base groove.
So i have to ask, what do you actually mean by "hi hat grouping" ?
Do you mean that there would be a drumkit of hihats, say a different hi hat on each key? or...??
much appreciated, TIA
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- KVRAF
- 1588 posts since 24 Feb, 2004
So the open hi-hat cuts off ("chokes") the closed hi-hat and vice-versa. And having multi-outputs would mean each drum sound can be routed out of the VSTi to it's own audio channel in your host to be processed.TheoM wrote:Hey guys sorry to bump such an old topic but i was about to plunge on this EXP before the sale ends,J'lien X wrote:The Vintage Drumkits expansion is really good but it would've been better if it had multi outputs and hi-hat grouping.
i have never really understood drums and have always publicly admitted programming drums is my absolute weakest point in music creation which is why i often turn to loops as starting points for the base groove.
So i have to ask, what do you actually mean by "hi hat grouping" ?
Do you mean that there would be a drumkit of hihats, say a different hi hat on each key? or...??
much appreciated, TIA
Nexus is great for quickly putting down a groove and is often great on it's own but can't (yet) do the above.
"What embecile composed this list :/"
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- Banned
- 22457 posts since 5 Sep, 2001
Ok yes thanks, get the multi outs of course lol, but choking never really got, so i'm glad that's what we are talking about here (thanks) as i am planning on doing some heavy reading about drum choking anyway, to really learn all this stuff! cheers
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- Banned
- 22457 posts since 5 Sep, 2001
Ahh i see... choking.. are we talking like synth legato.. to use an analogy?
Like if i programmed my notes to be precisely not overlapping, is this choking?
or does the fact that one drum is actually cutting out the other, actually make a different effect to that?
Like if i programmed my notes to be precisely not overlapping, is this choking?
or does the fact that one drum is actually cutting out the other, actually make a different effect to that?
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- KVRAF
- 1588 posts since 24 Feb, 2004
Legato would work I suppose but you could never have more than one drum sound at a time. You could do without choke groups if you couldTheoM wrote:Ahh i see... choking.. are we talking like synth legato.. to use an analogy?
Like if i programmed my notes to be precisely not overlapping, is this choking?
or does the fact that one drum is actually cutting out the other, actually make a different effect to that?
control the ADSR envelope of the hi hats but in Nexus the ADSR applies to all the sounds at once.
You could load more than one Nexus at a time I suppose and the same kit in each one...defeats the "ease of use" though.
Or use one Nexus for a kit sounds and use another with some of it's HH loops.
(Not in front of it right now, maybe someone else can chime in as to whether it has these.)
"What embecile composed this list :/"
- KVRAF
- 2177 posts since 12 Nov, 2009
Just an fyi, everybody should check their refx accounts, there are three or four free expansions that came out in the last months. Synthetic textures for example is really dope and it is a full xp, 120+ presets.
Finally!
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- KVRAF
- 1588 posts since 24 Feb, 2004
Feck me, thanks for the heads up - do you get an email from REFX with new releases or just check their website regularly? Never, ever gotten any notifications.cyphersuit wrote:Just an fyi, everybody should check their refx accounts, there are three or four free expansions that came out in the last months. Synthetic textures for example is really dope and it is a full xp, 120+ presets.
"What embecile composed this list :/"
- KVRAF
- 2177 posts since 12 Nov, 2009
I believe they sent out an email.
Finally!
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- KVRist
- 40 posts since 12 Jan, 2004 from Ellicott City, Maryland USA
I was thinking about buying Nexus 2, but I no longer see the Vintage drum kits on reFX website. Do these not exist anymore? Why aren't there drum kit expansions?
If I had a good quote, I would place it right here!